


And They Were Roommates

by The_Prince_of_Dots



Category: Thomas Sanders
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, Family Issues, M/M, Roommates, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-20
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-04-04 21:42:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 12,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14029356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Prince_of_Dots/pseuds/The_Prince_of_Dots
Summary: Oh my god, they were roommates.Or, the story where Logan goes to college and has some very interesting people living around him. He's never particularly been the social type, but when his roommate threatens to drop out over every failed interaction with the neighbors, someone has to intervene.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the first non-complete fic I've posted here! We're all on this ride together.
> 
> Tags will be updated as needed.

“Are you okay?”

“No.”

Logan stared down at his roommate, used to his overdramatic reactions already but still unsure of how to deal with them. He dropped his backpack on his desk. “Why are you laying on the floor?”

“The pointlessness of everything is crushing me,” Virgil said, and sighed.

“Why are you under the impression that everything is pointless? That’s an objectively false statement.”

“Have you seen how smart everyone here is compared to me?” Virgil asked, picking his head up to look at Logan. “There’s no way I can keep up. I’m gonna fail my classes, and then my parents will kick me out for being such a disappointment, and  _then_  I’ll have to live under a bridge and be lonely and disappointing  _forever._ ”

Logan was struck dumb for a moment. Finally, he said, “That’s a lot of conclusion jumping.”

“Thanks,” Virgil said, sarcastically.

“First of all, classes haven’t even started yet, so how could you possibly be certain that you’re going to fail them? Besides, I’ve already asked several of the RAs, and they’ve all confirmed that the majority of freshman classes aren’t difficult as long as you’re willing to put in the work.”

“Yeah, but they’re all smart enough to be here.”

“Clearly, you are as well, since you are, in fact, here.”

“That was a fluke. I don’t even know how I passed the SATs.”

“You told me yesterday that you graduated salutatorian of your class.”

“Only because my anxiety kept me up until I finished every piece of homework!”

“Well then, your anxiety should be able to do the same thing in college, should it not?”

“Oh my  _gooood_ ,” Virgil whined, but Logan felt like he was winning the argument. “It’s not the same.”

“How so?”

“High school had a bar set so low that the biggest issue was just finishing the hours and hours of busywork! Here you actually have to know stuff!”

Logan didn’t know what point Virgil was trying to make. “And?” he asked.

“And I don’t know stuff! I’m probably the stupidest salutatorian ever! I can’t even talk to the neighbors without making a fool of myself!”

Ah. It seemed that Logan had found the source of Virgil’s inner turmoil. “What happened while conversing with the neighbors?” Logan asked, sitting down on the edge of his desk.

Virgil, as if realizing his mistake, put his face back on the floor. “Nothing,” he mumbled.

“You appear very upset over nothing, then.”

“I’m not upset!” Virgil snapped, pushing himself up onto his elbows. Then, realizing how he’d just reacted, he groaned and flopped over onto his back. “Why do you care, anyway?”

“Because we’re roommates,” Logan said.

“So? It’s not like we’re friends.”

That stung, surprisingly. Logan realized that while he found Virgil incredibly pessimistic, his company was not necessarily objectionable. It seemed, though, that Virgil didn’t share his views. 

“Regardless,” Logan said, scowling, “I have to live with you for the next eight months. I may as well try and understand how you function. If coming home to you having a crisis on the floor is going to be a frequent occurrence, I should learn quickly how to handle it.”

“This isn’t a  _crisis_ , Logan. Trust me, you’ll know when it’s a crisis.”

Rather than asking for clarification, Logan returned to the original subject. “What happened with the neighbors?”

“You know the hot one?”

Logan tried to determine which of the freshmen in the immediate vicinity would be considered the most conventionally attractive. “Makayla?” he asked.

“Ha ha, Logan.”

Wait, he’d forgotten that Virgil had told him that he was gay. “Uh…Patton?”

“His roommate,” Virgil muttered quietly, in case said neighbors could hear them through the walls. Unlikely, considering that one of the two was playing the Wicked soundtrack at a volume that was far higher than it really needed to be.

“That’s…Roger? Right?”

“Roman. I made a complete fool out of myself in front of him. I’m never going to be able to show my face outside of this dorm again!”

“I’m sure it wasn’t that bad.”

“It’s absolutely that bad. I’m going to have to drop out on Monday.”

“What did you say?”

“I tried to introduce myself. All I had to say was ‘Hi, I’m Virgil Morgan.’ Instead, I ruined  _everything!_ ”

“…by not introducing yourself?” Really, Logan didn’t see what the big deal was.

“By looking him dead in the eye and saying, ‘Hi, I’m Virgin.’” Virgil covered his face with his hands and let out a small groan of agony.

“Well, slips of the tongue are perfectly natural. After you corrected yourself, I’m sure he realized that you just combined the names.”

“I didn’t.”

“Sorry?”

“I didn’t correct myself,” Virgil whispered. “I noped the heck out. I turned right around and went back into the room. And you know the  _worst_  part? As I left, his stupid roommate said, 'Looks like he’s Virgin  _Mobile!_ ’ I’m ruined, Logan. I have to move across the country. There’s no coming back from this!”

“Nonsense,” Logan said, internally rolling his eyes at how dramatic his roommate was. “Just go back over there and explain your mistake. They’ll understand.”

“I  _caaaan’t!_ ” Virgil whined.

“Fine,” Logan said, standing up. “I’ll do it for you.”

The pitch and volume of Virgil’s “ _WHAT?!_ ” was higher than anything Logan had anticipated, but Virgil was too slow to stop him. By the time Virgil had gotten off the floor and outside of the dorm, the neighbors had already opened the door. Roman, the taller, bomber-jacket-wearing theatre major was the only one at the door, but Logan could see Patton, who with his polo and khaki shorts could easily be mistaken for a frat boy, in the background turning down the music.

“Hey, Virgin Mobile!” Roman said cheerfully as Virgil hid behind Logan. “You’re back!”

“His name isn’t Virgin Mobile,” Logan said, adjusting his glasses. “It’s Virgil Morgan. He made an error introducing himself to you and was too embarrassed to correct himself, so I came to remedy the situation.”

“We’re glad you came back!” Patton said, poking his head into view behind Roman. “We were worried that you wouldn’t come  _calling_ again!”

Logan narrowed his eyes at the continuation of phone-related puns. “Anyway, that’s what I came over for. Hopefully this ridiculous situation can be forgotten now.” Logan turned to leave, noticing how red Virgil’s face was behind the sleeves of his hoodie. Logan thought it was silly that Virgil was still embarrassed. He’d just fixed everything for the kid.

“Wait!” Patton said. “You introduced your friend, but not yourself!”

“We’re not friends, we’re roommates,” Logan said, repeating Virgil’s words from earlier. Virgil flinched.

“Oh,” Patton said, somewhat taken aback by the quick correction. “Roman and I are both.”

“Yeah, we hung out all summer,” Roman said. “Ever since we got notified that we were rooming together.”

“I’m Patton,” he said, pushing past Roman and holding out a hand to shake.

“Logan,” Logan said, returning the handshake.

“You two should come in and hang out!” Patton said. “We can have a whole getting-to-know-the-neighbors thing!”

“Oh, no,” Virgil said, latching onto Logan and trying to pull him away. “We’re actually really–”

“Not doing anything at all,” Logan said, looking sternly at Virgil. He was  _not_  about to let Virgil go hide, or drop out, or run away across the country now. “And bad at making friends. We accept.”

“Great!” Patton said, grabbing Logan’s and Virgil’s hands and pulling them inside the dorm. As Roman shut the door behind them, Patton said, “I hope we all become the  _best_  of friends!”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan and Patton are gone for the weekend, and Roman doesn’t understand statistics.

There was a knock on Virgil’s door. He opened it without even checking the peephole, which he regretted immediately. Right outside the door was Roman, wearing a dark blue v-neck sweater with the school logo on it and some atrocious paint-stained jeans that somehow still managed to look okay on him. His hair was carelessly mussed and he almost looked embarrassed to be there. Virgil immediately squashed all uncomfortable emotions. It was too early in the evening to be feeling feelings.

“Sup?” he asked neutrally, having no context as to why Roman was at his door on a late Saturday afternoon.

“Hey, is Logan here?” Roman asked.

Those feelings that Virgil wasn’t feeling suddenly felt like a huge weight in the pit of his stomach. “He went home for the weekend,” Virgil said. “Why?”

“Oh, I was gonna ask him if he’d help me with my math homework,” Roman said. Almost immediately, the weight was lifted. Virgil was going to get emotional whiplash from all these feelings that he definitely wasn’t having tonight.

“Math homework? Aren’t you a theatre major?”

“It’s for those general education requirement things that we have to take forty credits for,” Roman said.

“Oh,” Virgil said. “I think I tested out of some of those.”

“Heh, I wish I was smart like that,” Roman said, with a half-smile. “I’m taking the basic stats class. I was just hoping, y’know, since Logan’s already taking calc–wait, you tested out of those? Do you think you could help me?”

Virgil almost squirmed under the uncomfortably bright beam of hopefulness that Roman was beaming in his direction. “I could try?” he said. “I’m not sure I’ll be any help, but I can try.”

“ _Thank you_ , Virgil! You’re a  _lifesaver!_ ”

“Yeah, yeah, lemme get my keys,” Virgil mumbled, going back into his room and grabbing his dorm keys. He took a surreptitious glance in the mirror to make sure he didn’t look too red, and then joined Roman in the dorm next door.

What followed were four of the most painful hours of Virgil’s life. Almost all of the problems that Roman needed help on were worded so poorly that Virgil wondered if the professor was intentionally trying to make their students fail. But this was college; professors didn’t do that in college, did they?

Once they’d finally determined what it was that the question was asking, Roman either understood how to do it immediately or couldn’t grasp the concept at all. In the case of the latter, it took several different bouts of explanation, examples, and sometimes fighting in order to get the concept to click in Roman’s head. Over the course of the four hours, Virgil went from still-nervous around Roman to completely comfortable and entirely exasperated.

It was eleven pm by the time they’d finally solved the last question. Roman cheered when it was finished. Virgil sighed in relief and dropped his head on the desk.

“That was really stressful,” Roman said, rubbing his face and yawning.

“Yeah,” Virgil said.

“You wanna watch a movie? Try and actually  _relax_ , since it’s the weekend?”

“What movie?” Virgil asked, slowly picking his head up.

“I was thinking something Disney, but we have the entire internet at our disposal if you’re not interested in that.”

“I love Disney,” Virgil said.

Roman gave him a tired, but genuine grin. “Lion King?”

“Sure,” Virgil said, with a half-smile of his own.

“I hope you don’t mind watching it on the laptop. We haven’t figured out how to hook up Patton’s TV yet.”

“No, that’s fine.”

“You wanna sit on the bed? It’s way more comfortable than these weird dorm chairs.”

“Uh, sure,” Virgil said, suddenly getting a flicker of nervousness. “I mean, if you don’t mind.”

“Nope. Just kick your shoes off first.”

Within minutes, Virgil was shoulder-to-shoulder with the guy he’d been crushing on since the first day. He was incredibly nervous, and yet, the closeness was surprisingly comfortable. It almost felt natural. He supposed that maybe all that neighborly bonding that Patton had been pushing them all into for the last several weeks had actually been somewhat effective.

Roman started the movie, and they both became quickly absorbed in it. He kept it at a fairly low volume; after all, it might be Saturday, but it was nearly midnight and they still had to observe quiet hours. He was delighted to find that Virgil was just as willing to sing the songs as he was. It was so rare to find a friend who liked Disney as intensely as he did.

As the movie went on, Virgil got quieter and quieter, moving from singing to humming, and then stopping completely. Roman honestly barely noticed, too absorbed in the movie, and was surprised to find that Virgil had fallen asleep against his shoulder once the movie had ended. Roman felt a little guilty; after all, not only had he worn out Virgil’s energy and patience with his math homework, but he’d asked him to stay up until the wee hours of the morning with him watching a movie. Not wanting to disturb him further, Roman gently moved Virgil so he was actually laying on the bed instead of sitting on it, then put the laptop on his desk and grabbed his phone to text Patton. Then, realizing that it was past one in the morning, he decided against that idea, and just lay down next to Virgil. Tomorrow he’d ask Patton if he would mind Roman using his bed if this situation were to arise again. Tonight, he didn’t want to risk Patton getting mad.

~

Patton came home bright and early Sunday morning, just before lunch. Knowing that Roman usually slept until one or two on the weekends, he slipped in silently, not wanting to wake the other. He made sure to shut the door without a click, and then turned towards the rest of the dorm.

And froze. There, on Roman’s bed, was a familiar black hoodie. And a familiar neighbor inside that black hoodie. And the arms of the black hoodie were curled around his roommate. The sight was so unexpected that Patton short-circuited for a moment. When did this happen? And how?

Then, recovering his senses, Patton grinned and quietly put his stuff down. Then, he quickly scribbled a note for Roman and put it on his desk. After that, he made his way back out of the dorm, headed for the food hall.

_Hey Ro,_

_I don’t mind that you bring your boyfriend into the dorm, but I would appreciate if you could text me next time. I’d rather not walk in on an awkward situation._

_PS. I want to hear all the details when I get back._


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone thinks they’ve ruined everything. Except Patton, who had a very calm and peaceful lunch.

Virgil woke up slowly. **  
**

The first thing his brain noticed was that it wasn’t his alarm that woke him up, which meant it wasn’t a school day. Obviously, that meant that he should go back to sleep. So, he snuggled into the warmth with a small sigh, barely awake.

Then, it occurred to him that it wasn’t blankets that was causing the warmth, but rather another person.  _Boyfriend?_  Probably boyfriend. They must have fallen asleep playing video games in the basement. He should probably get up and make everything look normal before his parents walked in on them. But he was  _so_  comfortable. Surely a few more minutes couldn’t hurt.

But his parents would be pissed if they caught them sleeping together, even if it was literally  _only_  sleeping. So he forced himself to open his eyes. The first thing he saw was dust motes floating lazily through late-morning sunbeams. Wait… _sunbeams?_  There weren’t any windows in his parents’ basement.

Then, he realized where he was, who he was with, and how he’d probably ruined everything.

“Shit!” he hissed, jolting upright and trying to scramble off the bed. It was harder than expected, since he was in between the wall and Roman. He slid off the foot of the bed and almost crashed into Roman’s desk on the way down.

Roman stirred. “Virgil?” he asked. His sleepy morning voice was… _amazing._  It wasn’t fair, dammit. Nothing about this was fair.

Virgil stammered out apologies as he frantically searched for his keys. Where  _were_  they? He knew he had them last night. The apologies only woke Roman up more, now worried because Virgil was worrying. His hair was a total mess, and he stared at Virgil oddly, as though not entirely sure whether he was awake yet or if this was still some sort of dream. Virgil froze, a perfect imitation of a deer in the headlights. Why the hell was his stupid neighbor so handsome? It wasn’t fair.

And then, Roman’s brain woke up enough to figure out what was going on. “Virgil, wait–”

Virgil snatched up his keys, which he’d finally found on Roman’s desk. “Bye!” he said, sprinting out the door in shame. Less than five seconds later, Roman heard the neighboring door slam shut. In spite of himself, Roman was impressed by how quickly Virgil had unlocked his door. The dorm locks were old and well-used, and typically very finicky.

Then, he realized what had just happened, and he swore under his breath. Then, he swore louder, putting his face in his hands and flopping back onto the bed. He’d just ruined  _everything_. His shy neighbor was never going to speak to him again. All the work he, Patton, and Logan had done to get the kid to come out of his shell was probably toast now. Shit. Why couldn’t he have thought ahead, for once?! It would have been _way_  better to risk Patton’s wrath (or more likely, his total understanding) than to freak out Panic at the Dorm Hall. God  _damn_  he was a complete idiot.

After a few minutes, Roman rolled out of bed. It was unlikely that Virgil would want to see his face right now. Or ever. But definitely not right now. Therefore, the next best option was to take a shower and come up with a plan on how to rectify the situation.

As he changed out of yesterday’s clothes and into his bathrobe, Roman noticed a piece of paper on his desk that he was certain hadn’t been there last night. He picked it up, and realized it was a note from Patton. Quickly, he read it over.  _Oh no_ , he thought,  _ohhh noooo_.

He found his phone, and texted Patton.  _Don’t u DARE talk about this with anyone else before u talk to me, comprende?_

He waited impatiently for Patton to text back. After what seemed like far too long, Patton replied with a  _lol no problem. I’ll be back in like a half hour._

A half hour? Great. He was going to take a shower.

~

Logan was already in a cantankerous mood when he’d arrived at the dorm. He’d gotten used to the relative peace of the dorms already, and having to go back home and deal with his parents arguing all weekend while he tried to do homework was infuriating. He wished they’d just get divorced already; they’d clearly be a lot happier apart than they were together. But divorce was simply not  _done_  in the Pensive family, and so they took out their misery on each other and everyone else around them. Really, Logan couldn’t get away quick enough.

So maybe, Logan was a little harsh when, upon walking into the dorm and seeing Virgil pacing back and forth, he said, “So what’s your problem  _today?_ ”

Still, he didn’t think he’d been harsh enough to warrant the “Shut the fuck up, Logan,” that Virgil snapped at him.

If he’d been in a slightly calmer state of mind, he probably would have noticed the edge of panic that Virgil’s voice held. But he wasn’t, and he didn’t, and his temper immediately flared up instead. He couldn’t engage with this. If Virgil was going to throw a tantrum today, he wasn’t going to respond with anything emotionally charged that could lead to even  _more_  arguing in his life.

“Fine, whatever,” Logan said, dropping his backpack next to his desk. “We are  _just_ roommates, after all, not friends.”

Okay, so it was a little emotionally charged.

“That’s right, we are,” Virgil snapped back, running a hand through his hair.

“Great!” Logan said, icily. “I’m going to the library to study.”

“Have fun.”

“I will.” And after being back at the dorm for less than five minutes, Logan stormed back out, almost running into a bewildered Patton. He didn’t stop to chat; it would be cruel to ruin anyone else’s mood.

It wasn’t until he was completely out of Sanders Hall that he realized that he’d forgotten his backpack. He sighed, but decided it wasn’t worth going back for. Both he and Virgil clearly needed some time to calm down before engaging with each other again. He still had at  _least_  three months before the RA would even let him consider changing rooms. Until then, he and Virgil had to work out their differences, and he  _wasn’t_  going to do it in the style of his parents.

Right now though, he was going to get coffee. That should give him some time to calm down and approach this whole situation in a rational manner, rather than an emotional manner. Feelings were icky, and while he needed to pay attention to them in order to avoid things like this in the future, that didn’t mean he should act upon them.

He pointed his feet toward the coffee shop and started walking.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roman gives Patton all the details now that he’s back.

Roman was headed back from the communal showers when he saw Logan emerge from his own room and stride furiously toward him. He wondered if Logan was going to solve all of Virgil’s problems with varying degrees of annoyance. But no–he diverted left when they got to the staircase. He nearly ran into Patton, who was coming off the staircase, but he didn’t acknowledge either of them, almost as though he hadn’t even seen them.

Patton stared after Logan, bewildered, as Roman came to stand next to him. “I wonder what bee’s in his bonnet,” Roman said.

“I dunno. He looked really mad though. I hope he and Virgil aren’t fighting,” Patton said, bewilderment turning to concern.

“Do they even have reasons to fight? They’re ‘just roommates, not friends,’ after all,” Roman said, mocking Logan.

“I feel like that gives them even more reasons to fight, since friends are supposed to get along,” Patton said, dryly. “Whatever it is though, I hope they work it out, otherwise game night is gonna be really awkward.”

“Yeah…about that…” Roman said, trailing off with a grimace.

“What? Is dating Virgil going to interfere with game night? Game night is  _sacrosanct_ , Roman!”

“I don’t know what that means, Pat,” Roman said, starting to walk towards the dorm. He pulled out his keys and started to wiggle the dorm key into its lock. “But no, dating Virgil isn’t going to interfere with game night,” he got the door unlocked and swept into the room, quietly adding, “uhh, especially since we’re uh, not, dating.”

The door closed behind Patton, which was good, because Roman would have died on the spot if the entire dorm could have heard him say, “Oh my  _gosh_ , you had a  _one-night stand_  with  _Virgil?!_ ”

“Patton!” Roman squeaked, gesturing to the wall that they shared with Virgil and Logan, as though to say  _he is right there!_

“Sorry,” Patton said, and then, in a whisper, “You had a  _one-night stand_  with  _Virgin Mobile_ , though?”

“Okay, first of all, I don’t like the judgement in your tone–” Roman said, already putting on the  _Heathers_  soundtrack so his neighbor couldn’t hear whatever ridiculous thing Patton said next.

“No no, that’s not what I meant to sound like!” Patton said. “Of course, expression of sexuality is totally normal and should be encouraged–”

“Patton.”

“–even if, uh, it doesn’t take a necessarily  _traditional_  route–”

“Patton!”

“–and as long as everything was consensual, I mean, there’s totally nothing  _wrong_  with that, I didn’t mean to make it sound like–”

“ _Patton!_ ” Patton shut up, and Roman ran a hand through his hair with a sigh. “We didn’t–we’re not dating, we didn’t have a one-night stand, nothing—nothing like that, okay? I asked Virgil to help me with my math since Logan wasn’t there and it’s positively incomprehensible, and then we were watching Lion King at like one am, and Virgil fell asleep, and I didn’t know if I had permission to sleep on your bed in situations like that, and I didn’t want to text and ask at one in the morning, so I just didn’t, okay? It was completely platonic sleeping together–not  _sleeping together_ –just–we were sleeping,  _just_  sleeping, not doing anything  _but_  sleeping, and it happened to be in the same bed, and–and that’s it, nothing else. No feelings towards each other, whatsoever, except, y’know, like friendship.”

“Well, you could have fooled me!” Patton said cheerfully.

“Patton what in the name of the Bard Himself is that supposed to mean?” Roman asked with a glare.

“Nothing,” Patton said, smile dropping, “I’m sorry. If you say there’s no attraction between the two of you, then there’s no attraction between the two of you.”

“Great,” Roman said. “As long as we’re clear on that.”

“Totally clear,” Patton said. “One thing that’s not clear, though: how is this going to make game night awkward?”

“Well, with the way Virgil sprinted out this morning, I have a feeling he’s, uh, pretty embarrassed about what happened. Heteros tend to do that, you know, when anything kinda gay happens.”

“Heteros?” Patton asked disbelievingly. “Virgil? Straight? Would you like to borrow my glasses?”

“I think you need your prescription checked,” Roman said, rolling his eyes. Now that the topic had turned lighter, he made his way towards the dresser, since he really should put clothes on instead of just a bathrobe. “Have you seen the way he acts towards me? Every time he sees me, he gets, like, this look of fear in his eyes or something. And until we spent the whole night arguing about coin flip problems, he wouldn’t even be within like a yard of me. It’s like ‘no homo’ deluxe. I’m just the only gay he knows about, obviously, because of the theater gay stereotype, which is why he acts normal around you.”

“Listen, Roman, the way he acts around you is like…the total opposite of ‘no homo.’ If anyone is an oblivious straight around here, it’s clearly Logan.”

Roman pulled out a tank top and a floral print shirt to put over it. “Patton, nobody owns that many NASA shirts unless they’re gay or literally living on the International Space Station. You’ve clearly been deciev–wait, what? What do you mean Virgil acts like the opposite of ‘no homo’?”

Patton gave a knowing smirk, picked up the note he’d left for Roman that morning and waved it around a bit. “You said there’s no attraction between the two of you, so there’s no attraction, but I’m  _just_  saying there’s a reason why it was so easy for me to assume that you two were dating now. Well, besides the fact that you two were literally in bed together.”

“Are you trying to imply something?” Roman asked, pulling on a pair of skinny jeans.

“I don’t really  _imply_  things, being straightforward is usually the best bet, but if I  _was_  implying something, I’d probably be implying that we’re not the only useless gays who don’t know how to ask someone on a date. But I don’t imply things. So you definitely shouldn’t act upon subtext like that.”

“Very subtle,” Roman said. “But first off, My Chemical Bromance isn’t my type, second off, I 100% doubt he even likes me in a neighborly way, and third off, not everyone in the world is gay, Patton. And besides, four gays in neighboring dorms who are  _not_  part of the gay residential community? Don’t be ridiculous.”

“We  _are_  part of the gayest generation,” Patton said. “Only half of us identify as straight.”

“Well, there you go, looks like neither Logan nor Virgil are gay then, sorry.”

“That’s not how statistics works and you know it,” Patton said.

Roman raised his hands up in a mocking surrender. “You’re right, you’re right. If we use statistics, there’s even less of a chance all four of us are gay. 50% chance, it’s exactly like a coin flip problem, which means the chance that all four of us are gay…” Roman pulled out his phone and pulled up the calculator. “…a little over six percent. Which means super unlikely.”

Patton’s smug look had yet to be removed. “Bet?”

“The numbers are on my side.”

“I’m not confident in your math skills. Bet?”

“Fine. Sure. Fifty bucks says that one or both of our neighbors is straight, and it’s probably Virgil.”

“Fifty bucks it is then!” Patton said, cheerfully. “No outright asking them though. They have to volunteer the information. We don’t want to put them in a situation where, if they  _were_ gay, they’d lie because they’re uncomfortable.”

“Great,” Roman said. “Can’t wait to be fifty bucks richer.”

“Don’t count your chickens before they cross the road,” Patton said teasingly. “In the meantime though, you should talk to Virgil about last night, and resolve the awkwardness between you two. Game night is Wednesday, after all.”

“Yeah…” Roman said, flopping backwards onto his bed. “I need to come up with a way to do that first. And since we are on the topic, if something like that happens again with anybody else, would you mind terribly if I sleep on your bed for the night?”

“Not at all!” Patton said.

“Fantastic,” Roman said. “Hopefully I won’t need it, but thanks.”

Patton grabbed a sweater and put it on. Then, he turned back towards the door. “Have fun talking to Virgil. I’m gonna go find Logan.”

“Why?”

“I want to find out if he and Virgil are fighting.”

Roman made a noise of amusement. “You can’t force them to get along.”

“I’m gonna make them friends if it’s the last thing I do,” Patton said. “I will fight them! With friendship!”

“Okay Patton.”

“See you later. Good luck!”

“Same to you.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Communication. It works.

As Logan stared at his third cup of coffee, he realized that he was going to need to find a cheaper coffee shop. Or, perhaps, he would need to find the coffee shops on campus that took the “dining dollars” that came with his meal plan. Twelve dollars was a bit ridiculous for only three cups of coffee. He could have gotten almost twice as many of the brand name energy drinks for that price, or even more of the weird-tasting generic kinds.

Still though, it was coffee he’d needed, not energy drinks. Coffee was warm, comforting, a ritual. Coffee was for calmness. So what if this was a three cup problem? He could just eat more ramen instead of other food to make up for it later.

His phone buzzed. It was Patton, asking,  _Hey, where u at? I wanna hang._

Logan considered not responding. He was, after all, here to calm down, and Patton could get on his nerves at the best of times. Still, though, he’d done enough ruining of moods today. He sighed, and replied,  _Orange Mug. Across from Stoker, next to the textbook place._

_Can u wait 10 minutes? I can walk over. If not we can meet up somewhere else._

_I can wait. It’s fine._

_Coolio!_

Logan spent the next seven minutes seriously debating whether or not he should leave, but he did not, and Patton arrived. He waved at Logan and headed up to the counter. Even on a Sunday afternoon, the place was busy enough that Logan couldn’t hear what he ordered.

A few minutes later, Patton came over with two cups, one of which he slid across the table to Logan. “You look like you need another one,” he said in response to Logan’s bewildered look.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Logan asked.

“Your hair’s a mess and you seem frazzled.” Patton had learned already that it was best to be direct with Logan, though he tried not to be painfully blunt. He didn’t want to be mean about it.

“Oh,” Logan said. He decided not to tell Patton that this would not be his second coffee, but rather his fourth. “Well, thank you.”

“So how’s your weekend been so far?” Patton asked.

“Fine.”

“Really.”

“Yes.”

“So what did you do?”

“I flew home and did homework in a place that was hardly any quieter than the dorms. Really, I shouldn’t have bothered.”

“You flew?” Patton asked, trying to get to a subject that Logan would talk about in something other than curt declarative sentences. “Where do you live?”

“Ohio.”

“And you came  _here?_  Why?”

“I’ll admit, getting out of the state was something very important to my college search.”

“But  _Colorado?_  Why not, like, New York, or somewhere cool?”

“There’s a good physics program here.”

“There’s better physics programs than here. Like, I’m pretty sure there’s better ones even within Colorado.”

Logan shrugged. “This one has a more acceptable price point.” He seemed like he was starting to get uncomfortable with the line of conversation. Time to change the subject again.

“Well, I’m glad you’re here!” Patton said. “Otherwise we wouldn’t have ever met!”

Patton’s smile was so wide and genuine that it caught Logan off-guard. He stuttered out an “I’m glad too,” but didn’t know where to go from there.

There was a bit of awkward silence that both boys filled by sipping their drinks and avoiding eye contact.

After a few minutes, Patton said, “Do you wanna take a walk? It’s pretty loud in here.”

“Sure,” Logan said. They grabbed their drinks and walked out.

They crossed the street in silence and started a leisurely stroll through the quiet side of campus. This side–the old side–had large maples and pines lined against the streets, and pathways crossing through large park areas to old brick buildings. The trees were far enough apart that you could still see the street easily, but they were close enough together and had dense enough foliage that they dampened the noises from traffic and made this side of campus very peaceful.

“How do you even know my coffee order, anyway?” Logan asked.

“Oh, I had no idea what your coffee order was. I asked the barista if she remembered,” Patton said.

“I see,” Logan said, taking a sip.

There was a slight pause, and then Patton said nonchalantly, “By the way, I’m pretty sure the maximum healthy amount of coffee per day is five cups, so uh, I really hope you didn’t drink more than one cup this morning.”

Logan felt his face heat up. He busied himself with watching the sidewalk and avoiding the fallen maple leaves. It was still early September, and most of them were still green. “I feel like the Orange Mug isn’t going to end up being a frequent spot for me,” he said.

“Aww, come on,” Patton said, jokingly. “At least you can tell they care.”

They turned down one of the diagonal paths. There were ten or twelve people across the park area, some playing with dogs, some sitting on benches, all enjoying the warm day before the weather started turning cold and the homework levels increased exponentially.

“So how are you settling in with Virgil?” Patton asked.

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t ask that question,” Logan said, taking a sip of coffee.

“Not an encouraging statement, but I’ll play along. Are you gonna join us for game night this week?”

“Probably, unless we’re playing Cards Against Humanity.”

“Nah. After last time I think we’re permanently removing that from the roster. I was thinking Monopoly.”

“Who’s coming?” Logan asked, changing directions when two paths intersected.

“Provided that Roman and Virgil sort things out, it’s gonna be the four of us, and maybe Makayla and her roommate.”

Logan raised his eyebrows at Patton. “What happened with Roman and Virgil?” he asked.

“Apparently they fell asleep watching Disney movies on Roman’s bed and now Virgil’s not talking to Roman. I’m surprised he didn’t tell you.”

“We, uh, haven’t talked a whole lot today.”

“Because you’re roommates, not friends.”

“Yeah.”

“Have either of you considered switching rooms?” Patton asked.

“We can’t even consider it until everyone in temporary housing gets sorted out. I’ve asked some of the RAs and they’ve all said it will probably be between October and December before that happens, and we probably wouldn’t be able to switch until December unless it was an emergency.”

“Then it looks like you’ll just have to get along in the meantime,” Patton said.

“That’s the goal,” Logan said. Then he muttered, “At least, it’s  _my_ goal.”

“What do you mean by that?” Patton asked.

Logan opened his mouth, grimaced, and said, “I merely mean to say that I can’t read Virgil’s mind, so I can’t speak for him or his goals.”

Patton was pretty sure that wasn’t what Logan had meant to say, but he let it slide for now. “So now that you have a goal, how are you going to get it done?”

Logan sighed, and pitched his empty coffee cup into a nearby trash can. “In the most effective, yet least desirable option: talking it out.”

~

Roman knocked on the door. “Hey, Virgil, you home?” he asked.

There was a crash from inside. Roman really hoped Virgil hadn’t dropped anything breakable. There was no answering reply.

“Hey, Virgil, can I come in? I need to talk to you,” Roman said. “I’m also willing to help clean up whatever you just dropped.”

There was no reply, but he did hear movement, and after a minute, Virgil opened the door. “Watch where you step,” he said, not looking at Roman.

Roman followed him in, carefully watching to make sure he didn’t step on anything. There were little army pieces everywhere. In the center of the room was a cardboard box and a half-opened map. “Risk?” he asked.

“I thought we could play it during game night,” Virgil said. He stepped across the room, carefully avoiding both the scattered armies and Roman’s eyes. His hair was a mess, he was still wearing his clothes from yesterday, and he looked far more anxious than he usually was.

Roman let go of the door, and it swung shut. He knelt down and started picking up Risk bits. Virgil copied him.

After a few moments, he said, “I’m sorry about last night.”

“It was my fault,” Virgil said. “I shouldn’t have fallen asleep.”

“I shouldn’t have made you stay,” Roman said. “Especially not after hours of  _stats_ , of all things.” There was a pause, and then, “By the way, your shoes are still in my room.”

“Oh my  _god_ ,” Virgil said. “I didn’t even notice.”

“Dude!”

“I panicked!” Virgil said defensively. “I would have noticed eventually!”

Roman was cracking up. Virgil threw a cannon at him. “Hey!” Roman said. He grabbed the first piece he reached and threw it back.

Then it was war. Risk pieces flew through the air and both boys descended into laughter. They didn’t even notice when keys jiggled in the lock. It was only Logan’s quick reflexes that kept him from getting hit in the face by a blue cavalryman.

“Heh, hey, Logan,” Roman said, red from laughing but immediately trying to look like he hadn’t just been throwing game pieces like a ten-year-old. “We were just cleaning up.”

“You have an odd definition of ‘cleaning up,’” Logan said.

“We  _were_  cleaning up a few minutes ago,” Virgil said. His cheeks were flushed from laughing, and he still had a small smile on his face. Roman was delighted; Virgil almost never smiled.

“I see,” Logan said. “Is that Risk?”

“Yeah. I thought we could play it Wednesday,” Virgil said. “We should make sure that all the pieces are here still, though.”

With that, Virgil and Roman quickly picked up the game pieces again, and the smile disappeared. Logan went out to get the piece that had been thrown at his head, and returned shortly. Once they’d found and counted all the pieces, Virgil put the box on top of his and Logan’s shared chest of drawers.

“Alright, I’m gonna go get your shoes,” Roman said to Virgil.

“Why do you have his shoes?” Logan asked.

“Because he forgot them in my room, and I forgot to bring them here when I came over,” Roman said. “See ya in a sec.”

Roman left, and came back a minute later with the black sneakers. He didn’t stay, instead offering a quick and dramatic, “Until we meet again!” and disappeared back into his own dorm.

Logan and Virgil were left alone in their dorm. “You two seem to be getting along well,” Logan said.

“Hopefully,” Virgil said.

The two stood in silence for a few minutes, both knowing what needed to come next but neither wanting to make the next move.

Finally, Logan ran a hand through his hair and said, “I want to apologize for what happened earlier. It’s been a…a rough weekend for me.”

“Me too,” Virgil said. “I was stressed out. I shouldn’t have snapped at you.”

“I think…” Logan started, then stopped, trying to formulate words in a way that would be productive and not offensive. “I think maybe next time we should try to be a little more direct about what’s upsetting us so that we don’t inadvertently cause each other harm.”

“Agreed, yeah,” Virgil said. “We need to figure out how to communicate better. Like, we seemed to get along pretty well when we were texting over the summer, so I feel like we can, I just…let’s work on it, okay? This whole thing’s been stressing me out, a lot.”

“I feel the same,” Logan said.

“Cool,” Virgil said. “You wanna rap about your problems then?”

“Excuse me?” Logan asked, perplexed.

Virgil flinched. “Nothing,” he said. “Just, this guy I knew in high school, whenever I seemed down, he’d tell me to rap about it. It was stupid, but usually it made us feel better.”

“Oh,” Logan said. “Well, if it’s worked for you in the past, I certainly wouldn’t be opposed to trying it.”

“Alright,” Virgil said. “And we should stop with the ‘we’re roommates not friends’ thing. I don’t know why we’ve clung to it for so long, but it’s stupid.”

“Agreed,” Logan said. “We should try to be both roommates  _and_ friends. I’ve heard life is better that way.”

Virgil laughed, and Logan smiled a bit as well. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but it was a start.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I thought you guys were trying to like each other now?”
> 
> “We are trying, it’s just...things don’t change overnight, you know?”

Logan walked into Astronomy on Wednesday already tired. He wouldn’t have thought that 8 am classes would be so exhausting, especially since his high school had always started at seven, but with calculus as the very first class of the day, it was miserable. And he still had chemistry to go. And, since he _wasn’t_ seeing a sudden increase in his bank account that would cover the amount of his tuition this month, probably a call to his family later today as well.

“ _Gurl_ , you wouldn’t even _believe_ \--Logan, what’s up? You look like hell.”

“Good morning, Remanuel,” Logan said. He was surprised his lab partner was already here. Usually the guy showed up 30 seconds before class started.

“Listen, dude, I’m gonna have to get you to start calling me Remy, kay? I tried the full name gig for a few weeks, but I have to say, I’m _not_ digging it.”

“Certainly, Remy,” Logan said, dropping his backpack and pulling out his notebook.

“Anyway, Char, I was at lab yesterday with Logan and we’re trying to position the scope but it’s being old and stupid, so James the TA came over to help, and afterwards we were talking about stars and shit, and he pointed at a plane, and he tried to convince me they were shooting stars! He’s like ‘oh yeah, you see those lights? Those two white ones moving together? Those are double shooting stars. Really rare. They always travel together at that same distance.’”

“You looked like you believed him for a second there,” Logan said, grinning.

“I almost did, for a second! I was like, ‘no, surely James is not trying to pull something _that obvious_ over on me!’ But he was, and it was really funny after about two seconds of total confusion.”

“So what did you observe?” Charlotte, one of Logan’s other lab partners asked.

“We observed some cluster thing, y’know, one of the letter-number combination things. And we also observed Vega. That’s all we got though, because the lab got mobbed by a bunch of 101 students who needed moon observations, so we left.”

“Wait, what did you observe?” And there was Alex, their final lab partner.

Remy repeated what he’d just said, then added, “Logan’s got the papers. He seems less likely to lose them than me.”

“Sounds good,” Alex said. “Charlotte and I can start on the report then, since you guys did observations.”

“Do you want the papers?” Logan asked him, pulling the sheets out of his backpack.

“Sure. I’ll scan them and make a group folder on Google for them, sound good? That way we can all access them, and if we lose them we can just print another.”

“That is a _genius_ idea, Alex,” Remy said. “Oh, and, off-topic, but do you pals wanna hang out on Friday? I’m going to a little music show downtown with my partner and some other friends, _super_ cheap, like ten bucks, it’s this local band called The Cosmic Brownies.”

“I’m working, sorry,” Alex said.

“You’re _always_ working,” Remy said. “It’s at eight.”

Alex shrugged. “I’m working until eleven.”

“I’m going home this weekend,” Charlotte said.

“To see your lizard?” Remy asked.

“Hell yes,” Charlotte said.

“What about you, Logan? You gonna join my squad on Friday?”

“Sure,” Logan said. “Where’s it at?”

“Easier question: where do you live? I’ll just pick you up on Friday.”

“Sanders Hall.”

“Great,” Remy said, pulling out his phone. “Wear like, casual clothes, like t-shirt and jeans probably. And contacts if you have them. And earplugs.”

“Why would I need contacts and earplugs?”

“It’s gonna be loud. Don’t worry, you’ll still be able to hear the music. And you might wanna mosh, I dunno, so bring contacts if you have them so you don’t have to worry about getting your glasses knocked off.”

“Okay, class, good morning!” the professor said, walking in. And on that note, Astronomy began.

~

After Astronomy, Logan headed over to the dining hall on that side of campus. It’s full name was Home Cook’t, but everyone just called it Homes. He got in line after putting his backpack in one of the storage cubbies, and saw that Virgil was already way up in front. He glanced over the rest of the line. No sign of Patton yet, which meant that he’d probably gone back to the dorms after his 8 am instead of the library today.

Patton, Virgil, and Logan had all started eating lunch together on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays about a week ago, once they finally compared schedules and realized they all had an hour of free time from 11-12 on those days. Virgil and Logan were already on that side of campus at 11, while Patton had class at 12:20, so he came over for lunch and then went to class. Roman joined them once, but since all his MWF classes were in Stoker--on the same side of campus as Sanders--he usually didn’t feel like walking all the way across campus to Homes, and instead ate at Talon Hall with theatre friends and then did homework at the dorms for a bit before returning to Stoker.

Once Logan had gone through the food lines and gotten a hamburger, some salad, a soda, and some cookies, he scanned the dining hall for Virgil. He spotted him at one of the tables by the windows, and walked over. Virgil barely glanced up and said hello. His focus was on his phone and whatever he was furiously typing at.

“What’re you doing?” Logan asked.

“Chem quiz.”

“You haven’t done that yet?” Logan asked.

Virgil flipped him off without taking his eyes off the screen. Logan rolled his eyes but stayed quiet, letting Virgil concentrate. While he waited, he tried to plan what, exactly, he’d say to his parents when the phone call inevitably came. And what he’d say if they told him that they weren’t going to pay their agreed part of the tuition anymore. And what he’d say if they told him that he was a miserable excuse for a son and they never wanted to see him again.

Then he realized he was catastrophizing, and tried to quit that line of thinking. It was illogical to be thinking like that. No doubt Dad had just forgotten that it was Wednesday and he had to transfer the money to Logan’s account today. Nothing to worry about at all.

Virgil finished his quiz about five minutes later, less than 30 seconds before Patton showed up.

“Hey guys!” Patton said, plopping down with some pizza and french fries.

“Hey Pat,” Virgil said, slipping his phone into his pocket. Logan waved, not wanting to talk with food in his mouth.

“So Makayla just texted me, and she and Jenny aren’t going to make it,” Patton said. It’s just going to be the four of us tonight.”

“Whose dorm, then?” Logan asked.

“Depends. How clean is your guys’ dorm?” Patton asked.

“Spotless,” Virgil said. “Logan can’t stand anything less.”

“I’m not the one who was sweeping at two a.m. this morning,” Logan said.

“Yeah, but you _would_ be the one who complained after stepping on popcorn when you got up.”

“Let’s do your guys’ dorm then,” Patton said. “Roman’s working on a project right now that’s kind of taken over the dorm, and it would be a project in itself just to clean it up.”

“Sounds good,” Virgil said. “I have Risk, so we could play that.”

“I brought Monopoly from home,” Patton said, grinning. “We can switch games then, if one gets too heated.”

Logan nodded. That would be a better idea than trying to stick to one game or calling the night off.

“My moms also sent over some tofu loaf, so as long as neither of you are allergic to soy, you guys get to experience my mother’s cooking, which, by the way, is the bomb!”

“Neither of us are allergic to soy,” Logan said. “Virgil’s lactose intolerant, though.”

“It’s not super severe, but straight-up milk will mess me up. Cheese is usually okay as long as I don’t have too much. So like, I can still eat a slice of pizza usually,” Virgil said. “How do you even know that? I don’t think I’ve ever told you that.”

“You told me in one of the first few emails we sent each other, after I asked if there were any dietary restrictions I should be aware of,” Logan said.

“I don’t remember that at all,” Virgil said, pulling out his phone to see if he really _had_ emailed that at one point.

“It was one of the emails that had fifty or so questions in it, so it’s unlikely you would remember _everything_ I asked,” Logan said.

“I’ll be sure to remember that, Virgil,” Patton said. “I’d feel terrible if I got you sick. On that note, though, are you allergic to anything Logan?”

“I have seasonal allergies, but I don’t have any food allergies, no.”

“I remember this email now,” Virgil muttered. “I forgot about the food question because the most memorable part of this email was me freaking out because I misinterpreted the question where you asked if I wanted the top bunk or the bottom bunk.”

Logan made a noise of amusement into his soda. Patton looked confused. “How do you misinterpret a question like that?” he asked.

“Uh, don’t worry about it, Pat,” Virgil said, as Logan actually started cracking up.

“No, I want to understand the joke! Tell me!” Patton said

“Don’t think about it as asking about bunks,” Virgil said.

“Top or bottom...not bunks? I don’t under--ooohhh,” Patton said, earning a fresh set of snickers from Logan. “Okay. I get it now.”

“Immature humor at its finest,” Virgil said drily. “Hey, what are you guys doing on Friday night?”

“I’m going on a date, why?” Patton asked.

“I’m looking for an excuse to get out of going home this weekend,” Virgil said. “Dad doesn’t work Saturday, so if I can’t go home Friday I’m set.”

“Just tell them you have too much homework,” Logan said.

“That doesn’t work on them. They just tell me to bring it with me.”

“Why don’t you want to go home?” Patton asked.

“I just want to relax on the weekend, you know? But since I’m not at home during the week, everyone in the house wants to hang out to an excessive degree and then I come back even more tired than I was.”

“Have you actually had a relaxing weekend at the dorm yet?” Logan asked.

“Shut up Logan,” Virgil said, with almost no bite to it. “What are you doing Friday?”

“Do you want me to shut up or do you want me to answer the question?”

“You know, actually I changed my mind. I think I’ll just go home instead,” Virgil said.

“I’m going to a concert with a lab partner and some of his friends,” Logan said, deciding that Virgil wanted him to answer the question instead of shut up. “It’s the, uh, Cosmic Brownies?”

Virgil gave him a look of disbelief. “ _Why?_ ” he asked.

“Because I was invited?” Logan said, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, but Cosmic Brownies is like, the _least_ ‘Logan Pensive’ style of music on this earth. Why would you even want to go?”

“So you’ve heard their music before? What style is it?”

“It’s shitty, tuneless, loud, punk rock kinda stuff. I had an ex who really liked it, trust me, it’s not your style of music.”

Logan shrugged. “I may not enjoy the music, but usually outings with friends are more about the friends than the outing.”

“You have friends? Wild,” Virgil said.

“I’m just as surprised that you’ve managed to have an ex,” Logan said.

“ _Wow,_ ” Patton said. “You guys are _mean_ today.”

Both Logan and Virgil paused for a moment. “You’re right, Patton, my apologies,” Logan said.

“We’re just tired, and that makes us both bitchy,” Virgil said.

“We shouldn’t let that affect our interactions though,” Logan said. “Maybe we should move to a different topic. Uhh, your date on Friday, maybe?”

Patton laughed. “That’s a very smooth transition, Logan.”

Logan scowled, feeling that he was being made fun of. “So who is this date of yours?” he asked.

“Tinder date. Hopefully not an axe murderer or something. We’ve been talking for about a week now.”

“You’re using a dating app?” Virgil asked.

“Yeah? How else would I be looking for love?”

“Join a club and pine hopelessly after someone nice looking until they notice?”

Patton laughed again. “Oh come on Virgil, this isn’t fanfiction. If you want love, you have to seek it out yourself.”

“Hm, have to agree with Patton on that,” Logan said. “It’s unreasonable to put the responsibility for noticing attraction on the other person. Best to be upfront about it.”

“Have you ever actually dated someone, Logan?” Virgil asked disbelievingly.

“Yes, I have!” Logan snapped. Then he sighed. “I’m sorry. I’m not really in a good mood for socializing. I think I’m going to go back to the dorm and take a nap or something until we have to go to chemistry.” He pushed back his chair and grabbed his tray.

“Are you going to be alright for game night?” Patton asked.

“I don’t know. We’ll see. I’ll see you later.” And with that, Logan left.

There were a few moments of silence where Virgil and Patton just ate their lunch. Finally, Patton asked, “So what’s going on with Logan?”

“He’s just bitchy,” Virgil said, rolling his eyes. “He needs like a billion hours of sleep and to be in bed by 10 pm and total darkness and no roommates trying to do their homework.”

“I thought you guys were trying to like each other now?”

“We are trying, it’s just...things don’t change overnight, you know?”

Patton frowned. “Well, I suppose so,” he said. Then, he thought of something. “Maybe you should get him one of those mask things for sleeping. That way he can have his total darkness and you can do your homework.”

“Ha!” Virgil said. “He’d probably take that as some kind of insult.”

“Maybe _I’ll_ buy him one of those mask things for sleeping,” Patton said, grinning. “Then he’ll see it as just a gift.”

“I don’t know about that,” Virgil said. Patton was already pulling out his phone and looking up different masks. Virgil made a note of amusement. Patton was just _so_ determined to make them get along.

“Do you think we should play Risk or Monopoly first?” Patton asked, scrolling.

“Probably Monopoly. We don’t want to end the night by ruining friendships.”

Patton laughed at that, and Virgil grinned.

~

When Roman got to the dorm, he thought Chemistry must have been cancelled, because he could hear Logan arguing, and who else would he be arguing with besides Virgil? Not wanting to miss this newest development in Roommates-not-Friends-ville, Roman quickly unlocked his door and slid into his dorm.

Logan was loud enough that Roman could hear his exact tone, but not quite loud enough to be clear. What _was_ clear, though, is that he couldn’t hear anything from Virgil, and he doubted that Virgil would just stand pretty and let Logan yell at him. Roman _really_ shouldn’t eavesdrop, but he was so darn curious. If it wasn’t Virgil that Logan was mad at, who could it possibly be? Logan always seemed pretty calm when it came to anyone else. Shoot, he was even pretty calm around _Virgil_. Roman didn’t think he’d ever heard Logan sound this angry.

He grabbed the plastic cup that was holding his pencils, shook the pencils out, and put it up to the wall to listen.

“--so was there an actual _reason_ you called, or do you just want to complain about me?”

Muffled voice from the phone.

“Yeah, I figured. Somehow money’s _always_ tight when it comes to the things I want to do, isn’t it? By the way, did you get that new Smith and Remington or whatever that you were talking about this weekend?”

Logan’s voice was very bitter, and very cold. The voice on the other end was outraged, but Roman still couldn’t make out what it was saying.

“I’m _literally_ in training to be a scientist, and that’s still not enough for you! That’s what! God _damn_ , a little support would be nice once in a while! But no, you and Mom are so miserable that you can’t see anyone else being happy or successful, and you have to ruin it for the rest of us!”

Oh shit, this was family issues. Yikes.

“Well maybe I don’t want to go to Thanksgiving either! Jesus Christ!”

Definite anger on the other side, though this time much quieter.

“Yeah yeah, I’m the family disappointment, absolutely _shameful_ that we actually get a Pensive with thoughts of his own. Whatever. I have class. Say hi to Mom. Or don’t. I don’t care.”

There was silence for a moment, and then a quiet _“Fuck.”_ Then it was followed by several more strings of swears that were angry and regretful all at once. Then there was some shuffling and a door shutting, which was presumably Logan getting on his not-so-merry way to class.

Something told Roman that game night was going to be a stressful event.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's game night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes it's been almost a year. No I don't have an excuse. But...there's a new chapter!

Logan didn’t show up to Chemistry. Virgil took it as a good sign. Hopefully, Logan was taking an extended afternoon nap and he would be peppy and cheerful for game night. Virgil made sure to take extra good notes today, because no doubt Logan would want to look at them later. He even made sure to put them back into his binder instead of shoving the pages haphazardly into his backpack to sort out later in the day. Then, to perk himself up a bit, to make sure _he_ wasn’t a downer during game night, Virgil went to the little food shop in the university center and bought an energy drink. It had started raining outside, and while right now it was just a light drizzle, the darker clouds in the distance seemed to promise a downpour.

When Virgil got back only to see that Logan wasn’t there, he thought that was a little odd, but not something to worry about. He was probably hanging out with those friends he’d finally seemed to have made. The ones with the poor taste in music that he was talking about at lunch.

It was really only around dinner time that Virgil started getting concerned. Logan still wasn’t back, and it was getting closer and closer to game night. They’d all decided to skip dinner in favor of Patton’s tofu loaf, so the neighbors were coming over at 6:30. And it was pouring outside, so no doubt Logan would want to change before then.

Virgil decided to text Logan, in case he’d gone to the library and fallen asleep or something. No sooner had he sent the text though, than he heard the buzz-buzz of Logan’s phone, coming from Logan’s bed.

Great.

Virgil tried to not worry about it. Logan had probably just forgot it. He was angry after lunch and decided to take a walk and just forgot his phone. No biggie.

He definitely hadn’t decided that he’d had enough of Virgil and college and just decided to leave. That was ridiculous to consider. There’s no way that he’d decide to just hop on a plane back to Ohio and leave his phone so that he’d never even have to think about hearing from Virgil again. It was Logan, after all. He might have had a bit of a temper over the last few days and maybe he hung on to stupid things for a bit too long, but it still took him at least three business days to make a decision about anything.

Then again, their big fight had been Sunday. Three business days from that was Wednesday. Which was today.

But surely he wouldn’t flake out on his friends? The ones who invited him to the concert?

Unless that was a lie Logan had made up to have an excuse not to hang out with Virgil on Friday. Because he would be gone.

Virgil found himself knocking on the neighbors’ door at 6:25. “Have either of you seen Logan since lunchtime?” he asked.

“Wasn’t he in Chemistry with you?” Roman asked.

“No, he skipped. I haven’t seen him since lunch,” Virgil said.

“That’s when I last saw him,” Patton said, shrugging.

“I didn’t see him, but he was in the dorms talking to someone on the phone right before Chemistry,” Roman said. “He left right after he finished the call, so I thought he was just hoofing it to class so he wouldn’t be late. Have you called him?”

“He left his phone on the bed,” Virgil said.

“Ah,” Roman said.

“I’m sure he’ll turn up!” Patton said. “He wouldn’t want to miss game night!”

Virgil wasn’t so sure, but he let the other two guide him back to his room. They had Risk, Monopoly, and a deck of cards. Not wanting to start either board game without Logan, they decided to play Go Fish.

Roman was in the middle of totally winning Go Fish when Logan finally showed up, at 7:13 pm. He was soaking wet, dripping on the hardwood, shivering, and looking generally miserable. He didn’t say hello, opting instead to say, “Did you know that our school IDs work as free bus passes?”

“If you took the bus, why are you soaking wet?” Patton asked.

“I’m Jared, I’m 19, and I never learned how to read bus schedules,” Logan muttered, slipping off his shoes and walking over to his closet. “And I am going to put on dry clothes now because I’m freezing.”

“I can put this tofu loaf in the microwave for you, that should warm you up quicker,” Patton said.

“Thanks,” Logan said. “Sorry for being late, everyone.”

“What were you even doing all day, besides apparently skipping class?” Roman asked.

“First I walked downtown, then I walked uptown, and I made it to 71st street, which is basically out of town, and then I decided I didn’t want to walk back so I waited for a bus, and that took me to the mall, but I couldn’t figure out which bus I needed to take from there so I just walked back to campus.”

“Don’t you have a car? Why didn’t you just drive?” Virgil asked.

“I didn’t intend to walk that far,” Logan said. “Also even if I had, this town is _basically_ impossible to navigate and I left my phone here, so I probably would have been lost and taken just as much time getting home anyway.”

“How do you _not_ know how to read bus schedules?” Patton asked. “How did you get places as a child?”

“I live in rural Ohio,” Logan said. “The only buses out there are school buses, so all you have to know is your bus number.”

“ _How_ did you get places?” Patton asked, now even more bewildered.

“For the most part, I didn’t really go anywhere, so I didn’t have to worry about it,” Logan said. “But also, I made sure to pass my driving test.”

“Ah,” Patton said. “I haven’t taken that yet.”

“ _Why?_ ” Logan asked, joining them now that he was in dry clothes.

“I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. It’s not like I really need it. I have my permit for ID and we have a bus system in town for transportation, and I have a bike too.”

The microwave beeped, and Patton took the remaining tofu loaf out. Virgil pulled a plastic fork off his desk and handed it to Logan. “Thanks,” Logan said to the two of them.

“Are we gonna finish this game or are we gonna switch to Monopoly?” Roman asked.

“I’m pretty sure neither of us can beat your number of pairs, so let’s just say you win,” Virgil said, starting to gather his cards.

“Sounds good to me,” Roman said, pushing all of his pairs on the floor into a pile.

Patton gathered up his cards and then took the cards from the other two. He plopped them into the card box and then handed Monopoly to Roman, who started setting it up.

“I haven’t played Monopoly in _forever_ ,” Virgil said, swiping the instructions. “I don’t think I remember how to play.”

“Too many fights break out when you play?” Roman asked.

“Nah, my sib’s just not fond of it. They think it’s boring and takes too long. So we play Risk or Candyland instead.”

“Your sibling...Elijah, right?” Patton asked.

“Eliot,” Virgil said.

“Hand me the instructions when your done, please, Virgil,” Logan said. “I’m pretty sure I don’t remember the way Monopoly is actually played either. When I used to play it on tennis trips we had to make up so many house rules to avoid fights that I’m pretty sure we were actually playing an entirely different game.”

“I’m sorry, did Astro Boy over here just admit to being a _jock?_ ” Roman asked, passing out the money.

“I played for two years, so not really,” Logan said, meticulously lining up the money piles that Roman handed him.

“Why didn’t you stick with it?” Patton asked.

“The administration cut tennis at the beginning of junior year to ‘save money,’” Logan said. “Not really sure _how_ they saved anything, considering we the players had to buy our own equipment and uniforms _and_ we had to do our own fundraisers in order to raise the money to go to competitions, but that was their excuse.”

“Oh my gosh, you’re _bitter_ ,” Roman said, delighted.

“Listen, the girls’ tennis team won state for _five years in a row_ before they cut us, and while the boys didn’t have quite that record, we were still pretty high up there. _Football_ , on the other hand--which, by the way, gets their uniforms paid for by the school _and_ got a new scoring sign my junior year--the football team wins like one or two games a year. They _suck_. But sure, let’s cut the state champions who pay for all their own stuff and keep buying the football team nice things that they don’t deserve.”

“You’re so fucking bitter dude oh my gosh,” Roman said. “Did you like, create a barricade in the lunchroom and demand the reinstatement of tennis or no one gets their pizza? Because if you’re still this upset about it I can’t imagine how you were junior year of high school.”

“I’m taking the dog piece guys,” Patton said.

“I want the hat,” Logan said, taking the small silver piece and putting it on Go. “We took it to the administration, the PTA, even the school board. Mary, the captain of the girls’ team, she started a petition. But--” Logan shrugged, “--it’s tennis. Nobody cared.”

“That sucks, dude,” Virgil said, handing over the instructions.

Logan took them from him and started speed-reading them.

“Hey I vote that we have a house rule that landing on free parking gets you the chance money,” Roman said.

“I’m good with that,” Virgil said.

“Me too,” Patton said.

“Sure,” Logan said, putting down the instructions. He noticed that Roman and Virgil had picked the car and the shoe. “Let’s roll and see who goes first.”

Patton rolled highest, so he went first, followed clockwise by Roman, Virgil, and Logan. Virgil’s very first move put him on a Chance spot. He drew a card and swore.

“What?” Patton asked.

“I’m going to jail on my first turn!” Virgil said, moving his piece into the jail box.

Roman cackled. Logan rolled and got to the “Just Visiting” part of Jail.

The four of them snatched up the properties fairly quickly, though Virgil ended up getting the least amount of properties of all of them. He kept making poor rolls while in jail, so he ended up having to wait out the entire sentence while the other three commenced bouncing their pieces around the board. Patton dominated the conversation, talking about all the dogs he’d seen on campus today, and how intimidating his French class was, and how everyone else was better at speaking French but he was still the boss at grammar, and how boring his history homework was. Virgil chipped in when relevant, and Roman sometimes derailed the conversation or responded with a story of his own. Logan was quiet, mostly just eating his tofu loaf when it wasn’t his turn.

“Hey Astro Boy, you okay over there?” Roman asked.

Logan scowled. “Please tell me you’re not going to keep calling me that.”

Roman grinned, “Only until I find something better.” Then he turned serious. “Are you okay though?”

“Yeah,” Logan said. “Just tired.”

“Like I haven’t heard that excuse before,” Roman said.

“I’m being perfectly honest here. I took a several-hours long walk, I don’t have the energy to feel anything _but_ tired,” Logan said with the ghost of a smile.

“Okay, well as long as you’re sure,” Roman said.

“I’m always sure,” Logan said.

Virgil swore under his breath again, and Logan looked over to see that he’d landed on Boardwalk, a property that Roman had been lucky to get. Scowling, Virgil handed over the money. “I’m gonna be out of the game in like ten minutes at this rate,” he said.

“I’m sure your luck will turn around,” Patton said comfortingly.

As he said that, Roman landed on the “Go to Jail” box. “What?!” he shrieked. “Oh, the indignity!”

“You’re right, Patton, my luck did just turn around.”

“You’re so mean to me, Virgil!” Roman said, pouting. Virgil just laughed.

Logan rolled the dice and landed on Park Place, which had so far not been purchased.

“Don’t you dare,” Roman said.

Logan smirked. “Patton, hand me the property card for Park Place, please,” he said, drawing up the correct amount of paper money. Roman made a dramatic noise of despair as the exchange was made.

The game went on. Roman had to spend two turns in jail, but did roll doubles on the third try. All the properties were finally purchased. Patton got the “Get out of jail free” Chance card. Now Monopoly started in earnest.

Virgil was barely hanging on. He kept hitting properties that belonged to someone else, especially on the expensive side of the board. If it weren’t for the $200 bonus for passing Go, he would have been out by now. The only thing that was saving him was the fact that no one had a monopoly on any of the colors yet. None of the other three had brought up trading or buying properties so far. It seemed they were waiting for an opportunity.

Virgil’s phone buzzed. It was someone from Biology, asking what answer he got on one of the homework questions.

Homework...questions?

“Shit!” Virgil said.

“What?” Logan asked.

“I have Bio homework due tonight!” He stared at his Monopoly stuff, thinking about what to do. “Here Roman, you can have all my properties.”

“What? But Virgil, we’re _roommates_.”

“Yeah, but Roman and I are friends.”

Logan gave him a look of affronted disbelief, but then he laughed. “Okay, I feel like I deserved that.”

Virgil walked over to his desk, and with a sigh, flipped open his laptop. At least he’d remembered _before_ 11:59. He opened up the questions and started his biology while also keeping half an ear on the conversation that the others were having. For the most part, it was Logan and Roman getting indignant over bad rolls while Patton giggled in the background.

Virgil started with the question that his classmate had asked him about. He vaguely remembered reading about it on the assigned reading. He sighed, and dug through his backpack for the book. Already he could feel that he’d be missing out on the rest of game night.

As he focused on the homework, he stopped paying attention to the others. He pretty much tuned them out until he heard Roman say dramatically, “Listen, Logan, I am simply too gay to do math right!”

Virgil turned around just in time to see Logan go through all five stages of grief in two seconds, and then say, “I’m sorry?”

“I like men, Logan, if that disturbs you we can’t be friends.” Virgil saw an all-too-familiar look of fear that maybe-coming-out-was-a-mistake-and-the-level-of-ok-with-gay-had-been-miscalculated on Roman’s face. Oh dear.

“No, I got that, that’s fine. I don’t get why that means you can’t do math.”

“It’s a joke, Logan,” Virgil said.

“It’s an internet stereotype,” Roman said.

“...Ah,” Logan said.

“One of these days, I’m going to set you up on social media, and that’s a threat,” Virgil said.

“I’m on social media,” Logan said. “I have a Facebook account.”

“Do you have Instagram?” Roman asked.

“No.”

“Snapchat?” Patton asked.

“No.”

“Twitter?”

“Myspace?”

“Tumblr?”

“No, and isn’t that last one like, a porn site or something? I know it was banned at school for being inappropriate.”

“I mean...yeah, there is a lot of porn there, but technically it’s pretty much twitter without the character limit,” Virgil said.

“I see.”

“Why do you have less social media presence than my grandmother?” Roman asked.

“I only had a flip phone until this year, so that means no Snapchat and no Instagram, and I’m overall not very fond of the Twitter format, so I didn’t ever make an account.”

“That’s so wild, dude,” Roman said, landing on Free Parking and collecting hella money. “I don’t think I would have survived high school with a flip phone. I love taking pictures of my friends too much, and you can’t do that with a shitty flip phone.”

“My phone had a camera,” Logan pointed out.

“Yeah, but I bet it had a resolution of like, 100 by 100. I like taking _good_ pictures.”

They bickered for a bit about the pros and cons of flip phones, and Virgil turned back to his homework. Not much later, they abandoned the game, citing boredom. They gave Roman the credit for winning again, since he was the only one with a Monopoly (on the green properties, which he got when Virgil gave him all his stuff). Roman brought up that they could still play Risk, but since Virgil was out, having to do homework, and Logan was visibly exhausted, Patton quietly suggested that they call it early this week and just play Risk next week. The three who were not doing homework cleaned up all the game pieces and empty plates, and then Roman and Patton said their goodbyes.

Once the two neighbors left, Logan flopped onto the bed. He gave a cursory glance at his phone, which had a few texts from his father and one from Remy, and then popped it into his top right desk drawer without answering any of them. Despite the lights being on and Virgil working away on his homework, Logan was asleep within ten minutes. Virgil supposed he really was exhausted.

With a sigh, he turned back to his homework. It was only a few hours until 11:59, after all.


End file.
